CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Literary work is an application of feeling and language toward real life. One of literary work is novel. The novel as an exploration or chronic
of living dreaming, illustration in standard work, influence, connections, result, destroy or human behavior.
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During the 18
th
century the novel adopted features of the old romance and became one of the major literary genres. It is today defined
mostly by its ability to become the object of literary criticism demanding artistic merit and a specific ‘literary’ style—or specific literary styles.
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The novel is probably is not hard to discover. Public attraction to the novel is partly owing to current reaction and perhaps temporary away from the
other major literary form.
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One of the famous novels is I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelouu. This novel was published in 1969. I Know Why The
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Dennis Walder, Approaching Literature The Realist Novel, London: The Open University, 1995, p. 9
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Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London : University of Texas Press,
1981. [Writen during the 1930s}
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Durlame and Hughes, Literature, New Jersey: Prenne Hall, inc, 1965, p.440
Caged Bird Sings is a novel of social protest by African American to the government of America and white American in 1930. Angelouu adapted it
in her works like themes to the black experience of oppression, discrimination and prejudice in America. The novel of I Know Why The
Caged Bird Sings is a view personal author, Maya Angelou. The great interesting from this novel is talking about personal author’s life from
memory of past in every character as a real reflection of author’s life. Maya Angelou born Marguerite Johnson April 4, 1928
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is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American
Civil Right Movement. She has been honored by numerous academic institutions throughout her career. She has been awarded a fellowship by
Yale University, and also served as a Rockefeller Foundations Scholar in Italy. Angelouu has taught at the University of Ghana, University of
Kansas and at Wake Forest University, where she holds a lifetime chair as the Z. smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies. Outside academic,
Angelouu has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. She has received a nomination for the
Tony Awards, and in 1993 won the Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Angelouu was
honored by Oprah Winfrey at her “Legends Ball” along with 25 other African-American women whom Winfrey considered inspirational.
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www.en.wikipedia.orgwikimaya-angeloubackground., June 25, 2007. 10 pm.
Angelou’s first work of literature, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is an autobiography. Angelou’s disruptive life inspired her to write
this book. It reflects the essence of her struggle to the restrictions that were placed upon her in a hostile environment. Angelou wrote with a twist of
lyrical imagery along with a touch of realism. The title of this book is taken from the poem “Sympathy” by the great black poet, Paul Laurence
Dunbar. The work displays an impulse towards transcendence. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiographical novel about
the early years of author Maya Angelou’s life. The autobiographical explores the isolation and loneliness faced by Angelou, and the attributes
of her characters that helped her cope with the prejudice of society. Quite graphic in nature, the text deals with issues including childhood, rape,
racism and sexism, which has generated controversy. The novel is the first in a six-volume autobiographical series, covering her childhood and young
adult experience. The background of study above makes the writer in deep curiosity
to research it in this humble paper. This matter has interested the writer to analyze the theme or idea author which author wants to tell through her
novel and the writer checks it with analyzing intrinsic elements. Those intrinsic elements are finding how the story running is, what roles the
characters were, social setting in America. The writer would like to analyze the novel I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings from its intrinsically
side.
B. Statements of the Research
Kategori